me and e.mail clients and programs....

...sometimes we're not pals.

a while ago i started using gmail for most of my e.mail action because i had a problem with, first microsoft entourage, then secondly, mac's client 'mail'....i lost a ton of e.mails that i was kinda hoping to keep...a few friends use gmail because of several features - keep e.mail threads together (great for shauna as she has many work e.mails that go on and on and it keeps them together...), it has an internal chat feature - that i think is ok but not nearly as good as msn messenger, and it shows you when people are on-line - messenger does this as well but, of course, in a different program, and is web based so you can check it from anywhere...some of the downfalls i have found is that it doesn't download your mail to your computer so if you have your laptop with you but have no internet connection you can't look back at mail you may need to reference for numbers or addresses etc. in most e.mail clients you can delete all the old mail you sent and still have the responses to those e.mails in your received mail folder..not as handy as the threading gmail does but, if you delete all your sent e.mails in gmail, the thigs they are attached to go with them...i found this out today....i, once again, lost a whole laod of e.mail due to me not knowing it would do this....

whoa...shauna just e.mailed me with a solution for now to save some of them...she's smart...

anyhow...e.mail thingys drive me crazy.

bye bye.

g. xo

they're number one! they're number one....

http://www.americana-uk.com/auk/index.php?module=ContentExpress&file=index&func=display&ceid=62&meid=75

good times...

g. xo

curtain round-up

i have these tab curtains from ikea...they're in pretty good shape. i wanna get rid of them. i just washed them so now they need a good ironing and away ya go.

http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/00120979

let me know...or late monday they go into the free pile...out in the alley.

g. xo

spanish, sandwiches and ang make like betty crocker

i guess betty crocker was just a baker, ang made out more like julia child or that guy BAM! anyhow...after making through spanish in the morning with shauna and emilie we headed over to finch's for a sandwich and coffee....emilie missed last week's class but already seems up to date and will probably pass me, but i'm tryin', i really am...shauna and i crammed at the noodle shack on west fourth on friday night to try and make up for our lack of studying during the week..i felt like a student cramming for mid-terms. all in all it was good and then the sandwiches at finch's. they're pretty good, but if you're looking for a traditional egg salad sandwich, beware, it's just sliced eggs and tomatoes there....im just telling ya. then i headed off to get my hair cut by the world famous k-win and shauna and emilie went off to do whatever they do...i like getting my haircut, especially by k-win...even if i am getting thin on the roof i still like it.
last night ang invited us (me, shauna, allison, corie and heather from gibsons) over for some snacks, but it was more like a 12 course snack bar which included puff pastry, three types of salami, chicken satay, cheeses, etc...nice work ang...and then an apple/caramel upside down pie thingy...so fuckin' good. we all rolled outta there fat and happy...
today some crap will be loaded on ebay, a jacket returned to banana company, maybe a movie and then bomber hockey at 10:30 tonight...i hate the late games...but i love the bombers..

and i love you.

g. xo

ang at ang's



more ang's.



apple/carmel thingy at ang's.



food at...ang's.



shauna and allison's shoes...at ang's.



tornack and heather..at ang's..

salt mine report

it's been an interesting week here at the old salt mine. we seem to getting through all the shit, though the hours for the boys deep in the mine shaft are long ones...we really should send a canary down there to see if they're alright.
the chemicals around here right now are hot and heavy..corie, grant and gord are trying their hands at making some plastic-type glass that will fly past camera frame at a high speed and break...not candy glass - we'll leave that to ed and alfonso's but instead a thing called 'smash plastic'..look it up, there's a good youtube video that goes along with it...nice.
the black lung has been going around as well with dan taking much of the week off and me sliding into it slowly and if i'm really lucky i'll be a coughing idiot by morning...and i/we have our second spanish lesson at 9 am so it could make things interesting...have to brush-up on my espanol tonight over dinner...maybe a tamale.
larry went to work at the salt mine yesterday and i'm getting him back tonight...a decent cheque is on its way and i plan to spend it all at whole foods and on shauna - that's just the right thing to do...years ago megan and i decided that if we ever won the 50-50 draw at the canadians baseball game we'd buy chicken wings with it....all of it. what does a few hundred dollars worth of chicken wings look like anyways...maybe a thousand dollars worth.
i'd like to see 'there will be blood' sometime soonish...that's just a stickey note to myself...
so another week down the shitter on this epic saltmine mission with three more to go...the countdown has officially begun. then maybe i'll tell some stories. maybe then the cat will be let out of the bag...not that it's a very big cat...

have a great weekend.

g. xo

eric's shop coat - o grinder - 1

old and slow....but still out there tryin'....

yup...i talk of the bombers....here are a few pics of me bombing it up...it almost looks like i know what i'm doing...just slower.

g. xo

nixon!

look at that guy....



nice.

g.

more nixon soon.

what the hell?

this is called the oakley medusa helmet...or something...



good lord.

g. xo

what the hell?

funny...or not.

hhhmmmm....make a few comments and shit gets done. i think. we'll see. soon.

g. xo

as the ex-rock star turns....

interesting turn of events.
rich rock, formerly of the matthew good band and other canadian rock projects, now denies owing me money. in a phone call he had this last weekend with an ex. he said i was bullshitting. yes. i'm a bullshitter. not only am i trusting in that i give the benefit of the doubt to him when i sold him the laptop, i am now a bullshitter. nice.
i think a trip to kelowna is in order.
by either me or someone who may already be there. he lives with his mom so how hard's it gonna be to find him?....it's not.

g.

better late than never....tribute to kirk.

i was watching the news the other night and there was a story on a guy from ladner who had been, a year previous, shot and killed by some people bent on revenge. the first picture i saw i thought, that guy looks familiar, then as they said his name and showed more pictures of him, i knew exactly who it was. kirk holifield, a former team mate of mine on the ladner beavers hockey team. a team i played on full time for a few years and subbed off and on for the last few years. he and i also played on a couple other teams together with the same core group of players.
kirk was a big man able to handle himself in any situation and if he needed to be tough on the ice, he could, but also was a guy with a huge heart and, while he and i never hung out outside of the rink, would do anything for you if he could. he used to always ask me if i went to in-n-out burger whenever i would return from roadtrips that took me anywhere near southern california. he loved the double-double and once told me he lived on in-n-out burgers whole on a weekend trip to vegas.he was a great team mate. i know he'll be missed by everyone who knew him. issy met him a few times and he always asked about her when we would play hockey.

here's the sun newspaper article on the shooting.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=c81d27ee-3253-49c8-9b6e-ca609adca11c

g. xo

reflection on a weekend that was.

i need new struts. i found this out saturday afternoon after our spanish class. yup, our spanish class - more on that in a moment. i had taken the element in for some routine servicing and had asked them to have a look at my front end - excuse me...?...because i had been hearing some odd knocks and such, and sure enough i need new struts. too many potholes and, at least one, medium to light bump on a curb near the home depot when it was icy. and really, it's not that unexpected.
so, spanish....yup, shauna, emilie and i have signed up and on for spanish classes at VCC and had our first class saturday morning...i was suffering from some serious shyness when it came to the 'turn to your neighbour and say hello and work on the phrases we have just learned...'..i found myself kinda freakin' out like a million butterflies were in my stomach but i'm hoping that goes away and thank-god (or someone) that shauna was there or i think i may have passed-out. seriously. out instructor/teacher, maria, is very good and puts a very relaxed spin on the whole affair. now we have homework to work on...
after we got the elephant we went and picked-up ang and went for coffee and some shopping...things went south at one point and i did something slightly out of character, that will not be discussed here but i want to publicly apologize to both shuana and ang for my untimely behavior. and that's all i'm gonna say about that....i'm better than my mouth would indicate...i love you both..
speaking of love...i decided that since saturday was six month mark of our first date that i'd take her out for a nice dinner to West. (don't cringe...it was very nice and good reason to do it...) we ate like champs with me eating my first steak like meat for the first time in so many years i can't remember the last time...i've been eating more meat in the last six months but as far as steak goes - and in this case an alberta beef ribeye - it's a new adventure. shauna had some smoked sablefish and an appetizer of beef and goat cheese and some other jingus. i had a starter of oysters and some fancy lobster and crab risotto. nice. and for the second or third time in as many months i've had a glass of wine with my dinner...maybe i'm getting fancy in my old age.
sunday was a late start as it was the first day we really had to sleep-in in a while...cleaned the house a little and did some laundry, that sort of shit...then we had a little breakfast at the alibi room and then off to crab beach to let stella run around and be a dog....i had a hockey game at 5 so we just had time to run a few small errands before i had to make that happen...
it was a good game, cleana dn such without the usual stick work by the other team but we lost 3-2 but really, and here's the clique, we could have beat them but were unlucky and out of the fifteen shots i had at net only five or six hit the actual target...not my best shooting display....most of our shots never made it to the net where i was set-up which was frustrating...my pal ed came out to lend a hand and was a great addition to the bomber line-up...now if i could just get him the puck...

ok...back that salt mine...

have a great day.

g. xo


good food at west....

the best rock and roll has to offer...

at least then and it stands now still as a great number.

have you ever really listened to 'back in the saddle' by aerosmith?..i mean really?....really listened to it. it may be one of the best rock songs of all time. really. i often listen to it when i'm on my way to hockey. it's not like the later tyler and perry work, the stuff from Pump or Permanent Vacation, it's vintage 70's action. give it a listen. listen to the amazing bass chuck-a chunka sound and swingin' guitar of perry and whitford. awesome.

ok. good night.

g. xo

so i made this guy a burger...

...after i sold him my old laptop. i had faith he was gonna pay me. he paid me half almost eight months ago. since then it's all been bullshit.



if you're ever in kelowna, let me know, and i'll give you a finder's fee for getting the rest of my money.

g. xo

brown baggin' it.

here at the salt mine, after all the complaining., etc, we actually do ok. i know that people outside this industry have a slightly distorted view of what we do, how we do it and how hard we actually work - that we stand around all day waiting for something to happen but it's not all craft service, catered meals and big pay cheques. our hourly wage isn't really anything to brag about, and in some cases, the same job in the outside world - welders, fitters, etc. , actually get more per hour than we do. anyhow...part of the deal at the salt mine is that they do give us a little cash - me a little cash - to buy some food for the boys for them to enjoy while at the shop working. a little for morning coffee and then again at the afternoon coffee break. a perk of sorts. and most people, at least here at the shop, appreciate it. some don't. some like to complain that it's not what they want. that the food isn't up to their standards. that they don't like what i've gotten to eat. and it pisses me off. in any other business, in the real world, they'd be packing a brown bag every day, having - at best - timmy ho's and black coffee at coffee. maybe. most of the guys i work with understand, some, well actually one in particular, doesn't get it. he's been spoiled in the past and expects things to be a certain way and when it isn't, he complains, and often times not directly. he will complain to others about it, about me, about whatever, and sometimes people listen, and sometimes they don't. usually they don't. he's hard done by, i know that. and i should be more careful when it comes to buying food for him. maybe he could make me a shopping list.
ok.
that's that.

i'm off to go buy some groceries.

g. xo

this guy needs to call me.

soon.

very soon.

g.

you could be anywhere...

out here.

yesterday, at lunch, i ran out to point roberts - in the good old us of A, and picked-up some stuff at the 'letter carrier' (a place you can ship shit to without having to have an actual mailbox down there...good deal...) and as usual, i was hauled-in and my credentials checked, and then i was on my way. (i actually think the border guard who went through my stuff and car was aware that it was bullshit and didn't hide the fact - at least in his facial expressions - that he knew it was....) coming back i actually declared all the stuff i had, and they just let me sail on through...sometimes i think you could drive-through there smoking a fattie and they'd let ya go...canadian customs, far different than US customs...fer sure, eh.
on the way back i took a couple pictures of the farmland to the east of tsawwassen. sometimes it looks like anywhere, canada, or anywhere usa....just farmland. just sitting there. just waiting to grow something. anything.
business at the salt mine is ramping up a little this week. a lot of moving action. fourish weeks and counting until we can gear-down and pull our tails out from between our legs and put the fires out and bury them with gravel.

more later. as it develops.

g. xo

don't hold your breath.

this week may be a slow blog update week...i'd love to give some sort of update but really, not much is going on here at the salt mine or in 'real' life. i have no new pictures to show you, no road stories or interesting tidbits. most of what i would and could tell ya would be centered around what i had for dinner and when i went to bed. for the record - i was in bed last night at 7:30 p.m.

and that was that.

have a great day.

g. xo

monday goodness.

at 6:59 a.m. i was already in shit.
i don't technically start until 7:00 a.m.

nice.

g. xo

sully gets a taste he'll never forget...

of topanga and us - and he'll never be the same.
last night fawn, corie, shauna, fawn, jenn with one N and i all met at topanga for a well deserved mexican hoe-down. jenn with one N also brought her new man sully. a self described fire hydrant of a man, an actor of sorts and all around good guy - and i'm here to say he gets a full thumbs-up from me. he's from nova scotia but we won't hold that against him, not yet anyways. i'm hoping we see more of him - that is until we get tired and bored of him.
the fawnz, with her new high profile, high power job was off to england this morning and will hopefully have a safe flight and bring me back some marks and spencer wine gums - marcy got me started on those years ago and i like 'em....she's becomeing quite a world traveler and collector of hotel shampoos and conditioners....
corie and i are slugging it away at the salt mine today as they needed some shit done pronto and, of course, they changed their minds as to what it was they actually wanted so....here we are, saturday action - if you're payin', we're stayin'....i'm hoping to get out of here at a reasonable hour as shauna and i were hoping to hit the store that sells cheap swedish shit, ikea and then get some dinner...not at ikea.
i had to scale a chain link fence today - twice - all in the name of getting this thing (that i'm not suppose to mention....) and make my way into tony's shop. i have keys to the front door and have a code to get in but i have misplaced, or lent out to someone i don't remember, my front gate keys....so i have to go around to the back, climb on top of my car, get over the barbed wire and then down to the ground - good times. and then go into the shop, get my shit, go get a front gate key they have there, go open the gate, and then walk all the way around to where my car is parked, get it, drive around to the front, put the key back, alarm the shop, and lock the gate behind me....i did this twice today...asthey kids say, bitchin'.
ok...i have excel shit to do now....more hot camaro action.

more later. as it develops.

g. xo

tony's back fence. watch out it's monitored 24 hours a day.

i don't know much....

...about art,but i know what i like. kaws, biskup, mcgee, dzama, kilgallen and such....and this. windsor gallery is having a show called 'the realists' and one of the artists involved, Terry Gregoraschuk, does some cool stuff...i've seen a couple of his pieces in person and they're well done. whether or not you want a water tower on one of your walls is another story but...

rock on.

g. xo

hi joe

hi joe.

happy birthday - slightly belated.

g.

when in doubt - give up....

it's been a weird january thus far. i'm trying, but it's all kinda going in the shitter (thank god for shauna...) - but i have faith it'll get better, just the signs so far are pointing to 'no'. some bad hockey, a potential 15,000 dollar screw-up at work, stuff made for topanga that didn't fit, and other stuff....i think more listening instead of talking for a while is in order...
last night after shauna took the elephant to go see some friends with ang, i had the following discussion with my idiot neighbour. (i should say he and i have had our times over the last ten years but in the last year he's become more of an old lady...)

(knock on door)

john: hey did you knock on my door earlier
me: yes, i was wondering if i need a special key to get into the laundry room downstairs
j: yes, you have to buy a key
me: buy? that's weird...hhhmmm
j: garn the bass is really bad, you've gotta turn it down
(history - he hates my sub-woofer on my stereo and has complained before. i, the other night was adjusting it trying to make it less dynamic.)
me: i have been adjusting it
j: i work hard garnet
g: so do i
j: i have to be up every day at 5:30 a.m.
g: me too
j: then you have to do something
g: i understand. i'm trying...
j: you can't do that, you've got to get rid of it.
me: well, i'm trying to make it so we can both be happy with it
j: no, you can't have everything running through your stereo. i come home and sit on the couch and try and relax and it boom boom boom.
me: john i'm just watching tv.
j: you've got that huge tv and the sub-woofer...
me: i'm trying to make it less and was doing that the other night
j: you've got to get rid of it, you can't have it. what if i came home and cranked up emerson, lake and palmer every night?
me: go ahead.
j: i hear 800 cycles and up and that sub is 800 cycles and down and you can't have that.
me: i understand.
j: no you don't get it. you have to get rid of it.
me: fuck this. (i start to close the door..)
j: garn, no...hey!
me: fuck this john. i close the door and lock it.

i then walked over to my sub-woofer and turned it right down. i give. as much as i'd like to punch his lights out, i don't need the hassle. better to just give in and shut-up. keeping my head down seems the best option. and for the record, this neighbour has a great record.
he burned his parents house down when he was younger.
he has said racist statements on cbc when he was working there and was a guest on nightlines.
he tried to get a former girlfriend of mine to come and have a glass of wine with him in one of the vacant apartments he had the key to because he was on council.
he has his friends over who act like 16 year olds - they're all close to or over 50 years old as is he, and they smoke pot on the balconey and it drifts into my place, they yell over top of the speakers saying how wicked they sound.
he used to steal my sun newspaper and then put it back after he had read it.
one time when someone had made some dirt trails in the hallway he said, at a council meeting with everyone there, it was like someone had dragged something in from the pickton farm. nice.

anyhow. he's awesome. that john.

good times.

g. xo

thank-you, thank-you very much....

the king was born today....yup, it's floyd's birthday today (and really, i'm not suppose to mention it....but fuck it...) happy birthday floyd.

nice.

g. xo

saltmine

we're back.

get ready.

g. xo

too good...

my phone rang this morning. as it does sometimes. it was 'he who can not be named on the blog'. he had some news. good news. well, maybe not good news in the sense that world peace had be achieved or that andale was opening a joint here and the el presidente was within striking distance but, news, of a sort. now, what to do with this news. hhhhmmmm.
the answer. nothing.
i have a nugget, one i would have, maybe a few years ago, made the most of but not now. sure, an e.mail was sent - and more since that initial one, but that's the end of it. some of you who are well informed will know what i'm talking about - it is saturday afterall and there's time to take it all in if one chooses to do so. but it's also a news item, of sorts, that could and will slip by most everyone. and that's good for at least one person who now , without any doubt in my mind, has a raft of e.mails regarding the same subject in their mailbox. good times.
chin-up camper, it'll be over soon. go get yourself a pancake.

g. xo

i've got a six-pack - it's just covered by a couple bags of groceries.

i don't have much to report.
really.
yesterday was 'hit every grocery place you can' day with mishi. a little bosa, some costco and then choices. this was after a trip to granville island and a little sitaround at the grab's and mishi's place. i get around.
today was 'built a bunch of stuff i should have built or made months ago' day. i made a few little things for andrew at topanga, some shelves for the garbs and mishi, and a curtain rod thing for us here at the homestead. busy. nice.
i don't go back to work until monday but am getting ants in my pants so have to be busy or else i'll go nuts. shauna has gone back to work so i have a lot of hours in the day to fill. today the garbs and i are gonna get some shit done.
played a little bomber hockey last night and since we've moved-up yet another division i'm feeling very over-matched. we've lost two straight, by reasonable margins, but i'm feeling like i haven't got a clue what's going on out there..more dryland training is needed....or a move back to a lower division. it'll be fine but it's hard to take right now. i'm thinking of taking some games off to get my head around getting old and slow....good times. i need to find more geezers to play with - it's embarrassing being out there with tornack as he whips around the ice, quite frankly, making us all look bad.
ok...here are some pics from the last few days.

g. xo

ang digs the wig.



gaile digs her birthday new year's eve.




joey makes poutine at gaile's birthday/wig trying on party new year's eve.



s. tries on the wig. (i did as well....no evidence of this...)

resolutions.

sure, i've actually made a few this year. why?..why not. we'll see how it goes.

oh. happy new year.

g. xo